At their regular meeting on July 18, the Salida City Council (SCC) passed Resolution 2023-31, approving the updated strategic plan for the Salida Creative District and Resolution 2023-33. They also established a lease with Joe and Stephanie Brady, owners of the Green Cat Art Gallery, for their lot between First and Second Streets, to be used for 30-35 additional parking spaces downtown near the Monarch Spur Trail.
Alisa Pappenfort, Harald Kasper, and Justin Critelli await fellow members of the Salida City Council as Mayor Dan Shore (right) consults the agenda. Merrell Bergin photo
The SCC also approved the first reading for Ordinance 2023-11, setting compensation levels for elected officials, and scheduling the public hearing and second reading date for August 1.
In other new business, the SCC approved a Letter of Intent to backstop “gap funding” for the Jane’s Place housing project, in an amount up to $240,000, supplied by an unused/restricted part of the City’s American Relief Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
This is a contingency and intended only to cover any potential shortfall in future fundraising by the Chaffee Housing Authority. There is no immediate fiscal impact from this action.
Acting as the Liquor Licensing Authority, they approved a tavern liquor license for Tunnybuns LLC/Jost Partners LLC, dba Little Red Hen Bakery at 302 G Street.
Consideration and approval of Resolution 2023-32, adopting the City’s updated Future Land Use Map (FLUM), was continued, after public hearing, until the August 1 meeting.
Salary for Interim City Administrator Continued
Another item that had been on the agenda as recently as Tuesday morning – a discussion of the Interim City Administrator salary, and a presumed announcement of Assistant City Administrator Christy Doon as the Interim City Administrator – was also apparently continued until the August 1 meeting, although no action was taken during the public meeting to strike the item from the agenda.
Mayor Dan Shore, asked for comment after the meeting, said that City staff had asked for the item’s removal from the July 18 agenda. (A request for clarification from City Clerk Erin Kelley was unanswered as of press time.)
Citizen Comments on Scout Wave
During citizen comment, the SCC heard concerns from kayak instructor Denny Lee that were echoed by others: that the Scout Wave river feature, installed last year, is making the river run from the Scout Wave down to Salida East more hazardous for boaters, especially during high water.
Experienced boaters, Barry Jennings and his daughter Jennifer, spoke, saying “safety, safety, safety…[Current conditions] will take kids away from learning the river…the signage at the F Street bridge needs to be reinstalled.”
The SCC also heard from Salty Riggs of the BETCH housing advocacy group regarding the FLUM: “City staff can solve [the housing crisis] by putting some serious density in the core of the city. We need 400 [units] a year besides the 400 at the [South Ark Neighborhood] project.”
Future Land Use Map (FLUM) presentation
After the motion to approve the Creative District Strategic Plan, Community Development Director Bill Almquist introduced consultant Darcie White to begin the public hearing on Resolution 2023-32, amending the FLUM and the City’s comprehensive plan. White gave some history of the project, explaining that her consulting group, Clarion Associates, had been hired to help work on the city’s land use code, but realized that the code “lacked a land use map – a map for future land use categories.”
The map, she explained, would tie back into the city’s comprehensive plan: “We are focusing on edges of the community as well as current city boundaries – this provides a big picture view of where the city is going.
Updated Future Land Use Map (FLUM), shows pale green legend for Agricultural Reserve and light white legend for Undeveloped Reserve. Image courtesy of the City of Salida
“One of the key things we needed this for was to update zoning districts. We heard a lot about the need for more housing [at public meetings]. We met with the city’s Planning Commission (PC), and had a kickoff event last November, along with an online survey.”
“Most people are on board with [the map], but want to balance density with character,” she added. “We went to the PC in June and presented a new draft, and dove into some requests for changes.”
It turned out that the “requests for changes” from the PC all had the effect of driving down density in certain key areas of the city. “One was to carve out a river corridor,” White said: “It was a priority for the PC. We added it to the map and referenced current and possible new regulations.”
“We also talked about the railyard site. We were showing it as ‘undeveloped reserve’ – a very strategic site for the city, and it hasn’t had a lot of discussion. Based on the industrial history of that site, you needed a clear plan for its development in case someone came forward with an idea.”
White detailed other changes that the PC requested at its June meeting, including an “Agricultural Reserve” category for the Monarch Spur trail, as well as between the Milk Run Trail and Vesta Rd. “People value the views from that trail,” White concluded: “but our professional opinion was that you should consider housing there long-term.”
Council and public feedback on the FLUM
“I uploaded video from the Planning Commission (PC) meeting yesterday,” said Mayor Pro-Tem Justin Critelli. “It was a cliffhanger – the PC was completely split on the ag land question. I’m concerned that my constituents may not know how we got here [with the updated FLUM], I would like to continue this decision till our next meeting.”
“I agree that we should continue this [decision] till next meeting,” said Ashley Kappel, Executive Director for the Chaffee Housing Authority: “The changes are decreasing density rather than maximizing density – density wasn’t considered enough.”
“I was surprised that the proposal decreased density,” said Chaffee County Community Foundation Director Betsy Dittenber. “I am not opposed to green space, but I do think density should be maximized in the urban areas, to keep sprawl from happening. This situation has come about from lack of [diverse] voices, such as renters, on the PC…Council should work on a more diverse planning commission.”
“I know the SCC has tried to diversify the PC,” said Salty Riggs: “It’s hard because of the timing of meetings.” Riggs went on to decry the fact that the PC is “a bunch of housing-secure people talking about their views – try living in a trailer for a month, see how that changes your views on the need for housing density.”
“It sounds like most of the questions are about changes proposed by the PC,” said Almquist: “This map is really more of a policy direction rather than policy dictate – more of a vision statement than a directive.”
“My perspective is that we don’t have a lot of areas where we need a lot of parking lots,” said council member Harald Kasper. “The Highway 50 corridor is one of the big possibilities to create higher density without bothering anyone. It might allow us to bring the speed limit down and bring the other side of the highway into our community. I think higher density along the highway is the way to go, but I know that the PC doesn’t agree with me.”
Mayor Dan Shore closed the public hearing, and member Alisa Pappenfort moved to continue discussion until the August 1 meeting. The motion carried unanimously.
Council, Mayor and Treasurer reports
During Council reports, Critelli announced that the Salida Theater Festival was happening, calling it “a really cool reinvigoration of the stagnant theater culture over the last few years.”
Surfer cautiously navigating the Salida Scout Wave on May 21, 2023 after large sand bags placed to help with high flow conditions. Susan Roebuck photo
“I will second that,” said Kasper, “and I wanted to acknowledge public comments about the Scout Wave. I know that there are changes being planned. I do think it’s a very valid issue for non-experienced boaters to be able to go down that route.”
“I really agree with the comments on density,” said Mike Pollock: “We have been behind with multi-family housing for years. On the Scout Wave I wanted to say it’s interesting that Denny Lee says that you can’t sneak around the eddy. There is a lot of power in that wave – it’s a horrible position to be in as a boater.”
He stated that City comments on river hazards, including recent deaths on the Arkansas River, had not stressed accountability enough: “Saying we screwed up on this [Scout Wave planning] is not going to hurt us.”
“I don’t think this Council ever intended to make things harder for boaters,” said Jane Templeton. “We heard from experts and we took their word that this was going to work.”
“There will be a post-mortem done [on the Scout Wave project] and more work will be done as water levels subside,” said Shore: “It’s going to be looked at. When water levels rose as quickly as they did, there wasn’t much [the engineers] can do.”
Shore also thanked outgoing City Administrator Drew Nelson, saying: “He’s done a remarkable job. I’m thinking back to when he was hired, and seeing massive turnover in city staff at that time – things have stabilized in the past four-and-a-half years.” Nelson is currently scheduled to attend the Aug.1 Council meeting, as his last official meeting.
Nelson said that he had received word from the Scout Wave designers that they would come back and work on it – “but run the river stretch there anyway. I did, and it’s fun.”
Treasurer Merrell Bergin reported that there had been a 9.2% increase in sales tax revenue over May 2022, and called on Finance Director Aimee Tihonovich to explain how contingency funding for non-line-item-budgeted items anticipates emergent needs for funding without triggering immediate budget amendments.
Tihonovich cited the current example of the Brady parking lot lease which will be handled through the Economic Development fund. Tihonovich and Bergin confirmed available monies using the contingency amount planned in that fund and noted that a larger contingency exists in the primary General Fund. Bergin also stated that the Finance Committee (which includes two council members), meets monthly and tracks this contingency spending closely.
Featured image: Salida City Council members Dominique Naccarato, Justin Critelli, Mayor Dan Shore Jane Templeton, Alisa Pappenfort and Harald Kasper pictured in April, 2022 work session. Not shown, but attending virtually is Council Member Mike Pollock. Merrell Bergin photo
400 new units a year! How realistic. Why not just ask for it to rain money instead? I’d say that the chance of either event happening are about equal. Maybe the time has come to try to discourage new arrivals and reign in development, instead of trying to build build build and attract as many new people as possible?